Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Adjusting video: what do you do?

about adjusting the b/w, a good way can be found here:
http://gellidius.deviantart.com/journal/

check out this journal:Monitor Calibration for a few Dollars or Euros.

the quality of the results depend on you; i think the adjustments can be precise within 1 or 2 clicks of an excellent calibration done with pro equipment.
the only 6500K source that can be found in nature is on a winter day when there is complete cloud cover and snow everywhere on the ground, about 2 hours before noon, and 3 hours after noon; but this way is much more tricky than using the lamp.

the lamp can afterwards be used as a bias light behind the tv.

If you go at the above address, why don't you take some time to have a look at the image gallery from the same person:
http://gellidius.deviantart.com/gallery/
just click on each thumbnail and then on each image to see them large size.

I use a Radiance XS for the HT and a DVDO Edge for the second system. I make sure the sources are set to source direct or as close to that as possible and they feed the VP's. I then use the VP's to tweak the output to the display. If I did not have the VP's, I would still set the source components to direct and use the display to tweak the image. The best test disk you can get is AVS, and it's free. I have not been very impressed with any of the "new" HD test disk for sale.

Even with a video processor, I'd still try to get the displays as close as possible, rather than trying to make huge corrections. Then use the processor to clean up.

Just wondering, in the case of the most current versions of the Lumagen models XS and XE which along with 3D compatibility and complete multi-point gray scale and Color Management calibration systems built-in, from what I have read, doesn't the XS have the feature of generating its own test patterns so you wouldn't have to worry about an external test disc? Of course all of this would still require a meter and software to do all these adjustments properly.

Popcorn, power, play...

Its been a while, but I used DVE and adjusted black and white levels, tint and ?? maybe some other stuff.

I started with the display's 65k setting rather than the torchmode it was set on.

Once flipped to the 65k setting, the TV was close out of the box, but I made it noticeably better. My display still has a slight red push I can't adjust for, but its pretty good.

I recently bought the Disney WOW bluray calibration disc. Reviews on it were good and I am happy with it.

Yes, the XS has internal test patterns. I still use the AVS disk to check the source components. None of my source components need tweaking though.

With a VP that has complete Grey Scale, Gamma, and 3-D CMS, you leave the display as neutral as possible and make all calibrations with the VP. If you use the display, you'll be chasing your tail all day long. I just use the display to set grey scale gain to make sure I have enough room to move it with the XS.

That presumes your display is neutral out of the box. While it may be close, even an amateur, with a little dedicated effort, can make a visible improvement. I sure did.

One thing to note, take down your original settings and make small changes. That way you can always get back to the original settings if you mess things up.

As one who spends a considerable amount of time playing around with this stuff, I can state with reasonable confidence that unless there is a color decoder problem in the set itself, red push is generally caused by an inaccurate Gray Scale which would require either a trained ISF technician to do a calibration for you(which would require access to the internal controls of the monitor and proper measuring software) OR purchasing one of these newer outboard units such as a Lumagen(most expensive) DVDO Iscan Duo or Spectracal Video EQPro to do your own monitor calibrations.

Gray scale is STILL an issue with the majority of monitors purchased today, however, we tend to think the picture is good strictly by our own visual observation, which without the proper measuring devices or something else to compare to, our eye is generally not a good method of determining accuracy. Of course, all this depends how serious one is in getting the most out of their monitor purchase especially when interacting with high-performance source devices like BR players. Obviously, your acknowledging the "red push" is one which is showing that the monitor is still not where it could be. I would suspect, even when you turn off the color, there still would be a noticeable predominance of red overlaying the "colorless" picture.

The whole idea of these relatively new consumer oriented video processing/grayscale,color management models, is that the average enthusiast can NOW do their own calibrations especially in a much more detailed manner and accuracy than even an ISF technician who doesn't have access to these outboard units. Also, unless you are in to 3D, you can buy a significantly less costly monitor, take some extra money, buy one of these processors and with a little learning curve, in the end, have a considerably superior picture to the top-of the-line set on its own.

It may be somewhat hard to believe, but it is true.

It is entirely possible that it is a greyscale issue. There was some suggestion that it was a problem with the technology itself (color decoder I guess) for my model.

I looked at the alternatives and the picture and decided further expendigures were just not worth it.